PCT publication WO 02/081308 A2 (US 20020145010A1) relates to a device for cleanly and conveniently refilling a flowable substance in a dispensing device. This device comprises a container containing a flowable substance, a holder attached to the container that includes an opening mechanism for securing the opening of the container when the holder is held in a stable delivery position in the reservoir. An unlatching mechanism is also provided to release the container holder from the reservoir in a convenient way. Such a device can advantageously be installed in a beverage and/or food dispensing machine such as a coffee, cocoa and/or milk dispensing machine and the like.
The benefit of such a device is that it enables to offer a clean and convenient way of charging the device with the substance. Furthermore, the device is compact and can fit in the narrow volume of a machine of relatively small footprint such as a tabletop machine. Many devices can be installed in the machine to deliver substances of various types such as soluble coffee, milk powder, cocoa powder or culinary powder. This is considered as a major advantage to be able to offer a larger choice of beverages or prepared foods without it being detrimental to the delivery capacity. The device of publication WO 02/081308 tackles this problem and offers a solution that is both compact, convenient and provides a good delivery capacity.
A first problem is to ensure that charging of the containers in the device is made properly and without risks of confusing as to the location of the containers in the devices. Indeed, when more than one device is installed in a beverage or food dispensing machine, one wants to make sure that the right container is charged onto the right substance delivery and hopper system. Image and reputation of the brand can be at stake, in particular, when the beverage or food served is not the one that the consumer demanded.
A second problem is to have containers that can fit in a reduced footprint of the machine, i.e., in a narrowly designed housing of the machine, while providing a sufficient delivery capacity that is optimized and a substantially full product evacuation (i.e., close to 99% by weight of fill volume).
The present invention satisfies these needs. The present invention is a further improvement to the invention described in patent publication WO02/081308 which resolves the problems of possible confusion when charging containers on more than one flowable substance delivery device. The present invention also provides containers of optimized geometry and size for being able to fit within a reduced machine volume while providing an optimized throw capacity and full product evacuation.